Mainstream Weekly

Most recent articles

• Disturbing Trend at AMU

  16 May 2015, by Kuldip Nayar

  I have returned from the Aligarh Muslim University (AMU) disappointed and disturbed. I am disappointed because the students did not seem to have merged into the mainstream yet and disturbed because they were still talking in terms of religious identity.
  Perhaps, it would give a vicarious satisfaction to the Muslims of having an identity of their own if the AMU is officially declared as a Muslim university. After having lost the battle in all fields, including Urdu, the Muslims do feel (…)

• Sino-Russian Entente in Eurasia

  16 May 2015, by M K Bhadrakumar

  The presence of the Chinese President Xi Jinping at the Victory Day parade in Moscow on May 9 signifies a significant step forward in the strategic partnership between the two big powers. The Chinese media underscored this in no small measure. The following quotes from the dispatches by Xinhua news agency bring out the flavour of what unfolded in Moscow over the last weekend:
  Xi’s presence in Moscow “demonstrates China’s determination to safeguard the post-WWII world order”.
  “Xi’s (…)

• Political Quake Hits UK But Cameron Returns

  16 May 2015

  by L.K. Sharma
  A rare political earthquake shook the United Kingdom and demolished traditional loyalties and beliefs but completely bypassed 10 Downing Street. A visitor to London will see the same old Prime Minister coming out of his official residence and conclude that nothing has changed. Paradoxically, the tectonic shift, far from sweeping away David Cameron, cleared the way for his becoming the Prime Minister for a second term. The 2015 election results made the use of words such as (…)

• Britain Votes for Stability

  16 May 2015

  by Purusottam Bhattacharya
  Confounding all the pollsters who had predicted a hung Parliament following the general elections held in Britain on 7 May 2015 the British Prime Minister and Conservative leader, David Cameron, has won an extraordi-nary victory and will remain the Prime Minister for another five years. With nearly all results declared, the Conservatives have won 331 seats in a House of Commons of 650 which is a slender but clear majority. Cameron had to form a coalition (…)

• Election Results in UK and the Twin Questions of Scotland and European Union

  16 May 2015

  by Vivek Kumar Srivastava
  David Cameron’s victory in the United Kingdom’s parliamentary elections on May 7 is surprising to many observers because opinion polls had a different opinion. Many scholars had analysed the likely outcome of the parliamentary elections and its impact on the basis of the poll forecast. Now all this has changed as a more strengthened David Cameron continues his second term.
  He now faces two major challenges which may decide the future of Europe and the course of (…)

• Cameos / The Legacy for Tomorrow

  16 May 2015, by Nikhil Chakravartty

  From N.C.’s Writings
  Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore’s 154th birth anniversary was observed last Saturday (May 9, 2011). On this occasion we are reproducing two pieces by N.C. on Tagore written 74 years ago, in 1941. Both were published in The Calcutta Municipal Gazette—Tagore Memorial Special Supplement, September 13, 1941 (that appeared after the Poet’s death on August 7, 1941). The first piece was carried under the pseudonym Vanguard. Though written during World War II when the global (…)

• Media is Attacked by Nepalese for Just Reasons, by Our netas to Hide their Own Iniquities

  16 May 2015, by T J S George

  IMPRESSIONS
  Cheap sensationalised news handling by television has brought shame to India. Not a new development, it was left to Nepal to expose this internationally. Ironically, and in entirely different contexts, many Indian netas also have suddenly found it convenient to blame the media for the problems they face. The Aam Aadmi’s Arvind Kejriwal has gone to the extent of calling for a public trial of the media. That would be nice. A public trial will bring out the double-standards of (…)

• Nepal: Indian Media: Cause for Embarrassment

  16 May 2015, by Vidya Bhushan Rawat

  The self-respecting people of Nepal need to be congratulated for compelling the jingoist brahmanical Indian media to ponder over its follies and idiocies in reporting the painful stories of earthquake from Nepal. The thing is that the reportage of TRP-hungry TV channels is not new to us when they market our emotions and sentiments as these are the most ‘saleable’ products in our market apart from sex, rape, babas, tantra, cricket, corporates and Bollywood. It is not unusual for the Indian (…)

• Who is Afraid of History?

  16 May 2015

  by Murzban Jal
  If Hindu Raj becomes a reality then it would be the greatest menace to this country. —B.R. Ambedkar,
  Pakistan or Partition of India
  The ideologues of the RSS are openly flexing their fascist muscles. Whilst Narendra Modi is presenting himself as a cross between a General going to war and an alleged statesman, there is a very clever move where his ideologues are pushing for an aggressive political war of attrition. What one finds is not merely the corporate media that (…)

• Challenges to Royal Legitimacy in Saudi Arabia

  16 May 2015

  The Royal legitimacy in Saudi Arabia drawn from religion and rentierism is beset with a number of challenges today. To begin with religion: it is well known that Islam is deeply embedded in the legitimacy discourse of Saudi Arabia. In this perspective, the Ulama1 tied to the Royal family through a religio-political alliance, accords support to the Saudi regime. On the other hand, the rentier state paradigm guarantees the stability of the system through its redistributive mechanism. But the (…)